OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Yeah thats right. They were rubbish. The problem with standard Chinese pips is that the sponge is useless, particularly for attacking pips - just hard and dead. The pips themselve were not bad and played OX would probably play close to frictionless. They were not for me though too hard, the ball would never be allowed to get between the pips.

Thanks - I can't source that in the UK, but its a good idea though.

Yeah BTY Millenium, toxic stuff. The sponge soaks up the glue like crazy and just wouldn't let go of it.

Anyway just to mention Spintech Spinsonic SP is an interesting rubber which I got in 1.8mm sponge.

Basically it a Chinese rubber with an extremely soft (treated) Japanese sponge, although the rubber has a low throwing angle. It offers excellent control and spin however the sponge is so soft that it bottoms-out quickly and the speed is much lower than a standard 1.8mm sponge would be.

The company does 1.8, 2.1 and MAX sponge thicknesses and in essence it isn't wise to buy less than 2.1mm. What the sponge does offer in the light of looming total speed glue ban is nice, springy sponge, spinny rubber, which is highly controllable, relatively quick (when it doesn't bottom out) and has a consistent low throwing angle.

I'll be playing with it for a while yet so I'll let you know the outcome.

729 40H Hero (Jap sponge) from echeng

http://www.eacheng.net/index.php?act=detail&ID=886

729 40H Leopard with soft German sponge from iruru:

http://www.iruiru.com/e/ak/

If interested in H2 with Jap sponge from iruru:

http://www.iruiru.com/e/acn/

729 40H would play more lower and flatter than H2 being harder and firmer topsheet. H2 still hard but better in looping. 40H better in hitting but with more surface stickiness.

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Cuts hard, but not short and not down. I'm a cut above that, and not a cut out. I cut back, and am fully cut UP! I am cutting sensational.

Thanks, although I don't really buy outside the UK, although H2 with Japanese sponge does look cool.

This rubber in the UK currently available is:
FRIENDSHIP 729-40 Soft

Any ideas about it? I'm really interested if there's a Japanese sponge underneath it. 729-40 H is probably too hard if excels at flat hitting, still a Chinese rubber with Jap sponge isn't bad.

What I am doing at present is switching loop strokes between pips and inverted (at speed) to trap the opponent in the variations in topspin by twiddling. The lower throw angle of inverted is kinda important for this, e.g. I noticed that I find it easier to land a loop when I twiddle onto inverted when I don't glue (lower throw) using high throwing Geospin. The closer I can get the throwing angles the easier it probably is to land the loops and the more difficult it is for the opponent to spot the difference.

What is fun about attacking with lps is as soon as the opponent serves underspin which doesn't double bounce you immediately face the ball with the pips and loop it at high speed (really launch into it). The opponent at this point is immediately on the defensive. In effect what happens is that you are reverse spinning their backspin in order to arc the ball over the net, with inverted this is much more difficult and sensative to variations in the incoming backspin.

Pips are great for that, you use your opponents spin against them on the return of serve. Its not that pips are covering weak service return but that they can be used to immediately 'attack' (spin or speed attack) the incoming serve. Even pros are defensive using inverted on return of service.

Actually this does look pretty mouth watering:

http://www.eacheng.net/index.php?act=detail&ID=886

That the standard 40S with a chinese sponge. The Soft refers more to the topsheet (compared to the 40H), I don't think the sponge is softer.

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Ohhh... pity, thanks.

Yes the 40S top sheet is only softer than 40H top sheet. Same thickness, more slower, more feel from top sheet alone. Same hard sponge unless you get the 40S national one from iruru with the soft sponge.

I am taking you can get the 40S leopard esn (where the leopards mouth is closed). That would be harder esn sponge but with the thick, soft and supersticky 40S top sheet no doubt.

40S is an interesting rubber. Allthough not what your looking for I don't think.

40S will be a better substitute for geotacky without glue. It is much heavier than geotacky though.

40H and 40S do not come with a Chinese sponge. Unless German ESN or Japanese is Chinese.

They had many 40S Hero (Jap sponge) versions on echeng (I asked them bout it once). Then all of a sudden they sold out of them. I think they are popular in China. I am presuming this.

My 40S Jap is an older one. This has a legit Japanese sponge. I heard the Hero Jap sponges could be made from China like transcend sponge but labelled as Jap sponge *shrug*. Whether this is true or not I don't know, but the 40S I have is legit Jap sponge.

It is like Sriver with slightly harder sponge, but with much thicker, resilient soft top sheet which is extremely sticky.

I don't think you'll like the leopard ESN german sponge which I think is the one you can get in UK. Not for what you want anyway.

But then again it plays better than geotacky in ways. I am thinking more Cream mrs or transcend though for more zip and lower throw whilst being an inverted rubber compared to geotacky.

Good luck with finding that complimenting rubber.

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Cuts hard, but not short and not down. I'm a cut above that, and not a cut out. I cut back, and am fully cut UP! I am cutting sensational.

Ok take another look. Thanks Leeroy

I can give initial feedback on the Spintech SpinSonic SV: the sponge appears to be too soft to be sufficiently stable. It does give good spin but the consistency is more difficult and that is 1.8mm.

It appears to have a higher throw than Skyline and I'd call it medium - for an unglued rubber its good. Also again for unglued sponge it produces ALOT of spin - but again the spin is not stable enough between strokes.

In contrast Skyline2 2.0mm is on a firmer sponge and is much more lively and yet it seems more stable and more consistant at all points. It is probably a little less spinnier - but overall the spin is more consistant - much more consistant it seems. Skyline here is the winner hands down, however its been through industrial scale speed gluing around 2 weeks ago, using long life glue via the LawOCG method. There will be some glue effect left over and more problematically is softening this sponge post speed glue ban will be very tough. Dropping to 1.5mm will help (although its preped I've yet to put it onto a blade).

What I might consider is buying rubber in bulk and start softening it up now via speed glue. VOC will be gone in 6 months.

I got some EEII from a very kind forum member via Haggisv and I'll give it a whirl.

The score so far Skyline2 (big glue) looks good. Feels very good and its cheap!

The EEII will probably work a lot better on a new rubber. If you do use it on a used rubber, peel off the glue first...

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

Thanks for the reminder. Turned out nicely ...

need to see if it still behaves the same say in a couple of months to make sure I'm not just seeing speed glue effect. It might not be long lasting priming you see.

The rubber seemed to improve after being cut on the blade and left a few days - oh and I used edging tape. Basically there could have been some more priming taking place after it was cut.

I have a few pairs of Geospin T on very fast blades and it's good for me...I wonder if someone tried EEII on it?

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EJ with over 120 blades (30+ def) and 220 rubbers (30+ LP), all active or new